Tikvah Wiener

Innovator: Tikvah Wiener ContactBased In: Teaneck, NJVenture: The Idea School
Venture’s Primary Area of Focus: Educational Experience
Venture’s Primary Population Served: TeensTikvah Wiener is passionate about making learning relevant and meaningful for students, and igniting their creativity and curiosity. She’s doing so by starting a fully interdisciplinary, project-based learning (PBL) high school, The Idea School, in Bergen County, NJ, in September 2018. She is also co-Founder and Director of the I.D.E.A. Schools Network, which helps schools implement PBL; since the Network was founded in 2014, Tikvah, her co-Founder Dr. Eliezer Jones, and the I.D.E.A. School team have trained over 1,000 teachers in PBL and educational and school change. Tikvah has been in Jewish education her entire life. A graduate of Jewish day schools, she attended Stern College for Women, earning a B.A. in English Literature before getting her M.A. in English Literature/Creative Writing from Queen’s College. Tikvah was a Joshua Venture Fellow, 2014-16, and a 2016-17 JEIC HaKaveret Designer, working on a team of 10 educators to create innovative models for Jewish education. You can learn more about her work from her ELI Talk, “Why We Need Passion-Based Learning in Jewish Education.” Tikvah lives with her family in Teaneck, NJ, but can be found frequently vacationing in California.